Fed Group Working on Addressing Standard

Not only have the nation’s local cities, towns and counties created their own 911 systems, but they’re all based on non-standard and sometimes odd methods of addressing properties in their jurisdiction. Facing the possibility of a future integrated, national 911 network, a federal group is now working to create a standard way of assigning addresses to help public safety pinpoint incidents, and also improve mail delivery and other related activities. The Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) held a meeting last month to approve the final draft of the standards, comprising 605 pages of basic definitions and terminology, and an attempt to corral all the various addressing methods into a single, meaningful standard. It’s an amazing collection of the familiar and the arcane. Download (pdf) the full document here, and follow the committee’s work here.